


Surprise Encounters

by easternCriminal



Series: Exceptional people - Exceptional robots [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Convention, Gen, Like, Making things up as I go, Oneshot, honestly why did i write this, idk - Freeform, what was the point of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23217280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easternCriminal/pseuds/easternCriminal
Summary: Peter gets lost at a convention and find some familiar faces.
Series: Exceptional people - Exceptional robots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668139
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Surprise Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not in love with the ending of this but I'm also impatient and wanted to post this so...

The Walters live all the way in San Diego. The other side of the country. They didn’t stay in Stark tower for long, and really Peter could hardly blame them. It had been a long week for The Walters, and Peter knew that usually after that kind of life shaking event, all you wanted was to be home. Surrounded by the people you love in a familiar environment. Curl up and heal. Peter knew, that was exactly what The Walters, what The Spine, needed.

But he couldn’t help the disappointment that wormed its way into his heart. He had hardly gotten to really spend any amount of time with The Spine. There was one night, when he got to sit down and play video games with him, and talk for a little bit. But the next morning bright and early The Spine and his siblings and all the other Walters and associates had packed up what little they had and boarded into three different cars. Leaving far too quickly. 

‘Stay close to me.’ Tony had said, casually putting a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Peter nodded and tried to move ever so closer to Tony. There were so many bodies and it raised the temperature in the room up at  _ least  _ ten degrees. It wasn’t the first time that Tony had Peter accompany him to one of the more high end electronic conventions/conferences. But it was the first one that was on the other side of the country. 

It was kind of funny how he could be somewhere in New York that he had never stepped inside of before and still manage to feel like it was somehow home. Somehow familiar. Because it was still  _ home _ . It was still his city. 

Los Angeles wasn’t like that. It was a completely different beast. Unfamiliar. The thick density of people clogged up every available space, and the only way to really get any relief was to escape to a side hall or inside one of the less popular booths. Tony was interested in his competition and peers, but Peter could tell that sometimes Tony would spend a little longer in a particularly boring booth, giving Peter a chance to breathe. 

“This is interesting.” Peter said, leaning forward. “Mr. Stark, did you notice how they used the-” Peter glanced over his shoulder, words dying on his tongue. His eyes frantically glanced over people who were hovering around the display case, trying to find the familiar face. How had he not noticed when the warmth of his hand had left his shoulder? He yanked out his cell phone, rapidly typing into his, sending a text out to Tony, asking where he was. 

No response. Peter frowned and felt his anxiety increase. Tony was usually fast to respond, the only reason he would take so long is if his battery had died or had gotten tied up in something else. He went over to the Avenger group chat, double checking the last conversation. The most previous message was still Bruce, Steve, and Natasha arguing about the best kind of doughnut. So probably not a superhero emergency.

His spidey senses weren’t telling him anything - well, anything that could make it through his current cloud of anxiety and that wasn’t normal. They were always going on in the background, trying to warn him about a loose shoelace or a person who was walking in his direction and on a collision course and other inane things. It didn’t exactly help his anxiety. 

Peter took a moment and stepped away from the display case, finding a corner in the booth and forcing his hands deep into his jacket pockets, closing his eyes, and took several deep breaths. He could handle this. Stark industries had a booth… somewhere. Tony was supposed to stop by there to give a quick demonstration of his products while he had taken Peter across the trade room floors. That would be the best place to head to. 

The trade show was big. It was across three interconnected trade floors, with long hallways full of conferences in between them. Really it was like comic con but for really rich guys creating really expensive products. 

Peter left the small booth, determination flowing in his veins. It was like navigating a labyrinthe, as long as he worked through it methodically eventually he would find his destination. The booths were already set up in a grid pattern, so he would just go up and down them until he found the Stark one. Even if Tony wasn’t there someone had to know what had happened to the man or be able to get in contact with him somehow. Regardless Peter knew he would feel safer and his anxiety would run less rampant once he was around the familiar Stark Industries employees. 

It was slow going, each walkway congested so that Peter was shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers. At least most people were willing to follow the unspoken rule of walking on the right side of the pathways making it easier to navigate. Peter kept his eyes on the booths that he passed, but none of them bore the familiar logos with the comforting gold and red colorings. Occasionally something would be distracting, some kind of device or technology that truly seemed like it was revolutionary or taking risks. He just took note of them for later. It was more fun to look at those things with Tony - going through the aisles alone was strange and left a hollow feeling in his chest. There was almost no point when there wasn’t someone that he could talk about the products to standing beside him.

It took far too long but finally Peter finished the first grouping of booths and entered the long corridor that connected it to the next set. Dozens of doors lines the long hallway, papers posted on each that probably said what was inside of each of the rooms. Peter hurried on ahead, not bothering to read any of them. 

Well, he wasn’t bothered by them until he heard that sound. 

Enchanting - that was the word for it. Almost ethereal. From one of the rooms, the door slightly ajar, music filtered into the hallway. Beautiful. Somehow it managed to pierce through the crowd of people around Peter, and he found his feet suddenly stuck in place. The crowd around him continued to move, the steady flow of a stream in a mountain range, but Peter stood solidly against it all. 

He couldn’t help himself - the anxiety of the crowd and the whereabouts of Tony were still there, but these conference rooms weren’t as stable as the booths outside. Whatever was in here could be gone by the time he found Tony. And Peter knew in an instant that if he didn’t at least peak his head in now, the curiosity would eat away at him for the rest of his life. 

The room was packed, every single seat had a body in it and people were standing in the back of the room. Unlike what Peter anticipated most of the conference rooms were like, this one was more like a concert. The lights were dimmed in the seating area - light enough that people could write but dark enough that the emphasis in the room was undeniable. Three figures were on the stage, velvety voices coming through the room. Peter could see several people visibly dabbing at their faces, tear tracks down their cheeks. 

“ _ Hello, goodbye, twas nice to know you~ _ ” 

Peter walked up the side of the room, squinting past the stage lights and trying to discern the figures. There had to be something about them that made them relevant for an inventors conference convention. Perhaps a voice amplifier of some kind? A vocal chord restoration device? 

Then the light caught on their heads, their hands, reflected off of the fingers of the guitarist as he plucked at the strings. And Peter’s breath was taken right out his lungs. The same way it had been during the blast of blue matter energy, but also polar opposite. Because this time it was for a good reason. 

Now that he had made the connection, he wondered how he hadn’t been able to recognize them at first glance, but from a distance they really did look surprisingly human. But now he could see the unmistakable spines, the trademark red hair, a gold plated face. 

Peter parked himself off to the side of the song ended, dispersing into the air for a moment before applause took the place that it left. The robots ran through a few more songs, much more upbeat and cheerful. Afterwards the robots all bowed and made room as Six and his father took to the stage, talking business and plans for the future. They had some devices with them to show off, but Peter wasn’t really that interested in that. Instead he crept over to the backstage area, doing a quick look around before ducking back through the door. 

“S-s-s-stop right there!” A voice called out, and Peter’s shoulder hiked up, spidey senses letting him know that the owner of the voice was dangerous. “You aren’t-t-t supposed to be her- P-P-Peter?!” Finally he located the owner of the voice. Rabbit was lowering her hand, which had been pointing accusingly at him, a wide smile spreading across her face. 

“Rabbit!” He exclaimed, spreading his arms wide. She came in fast but gently, enveloping him in a hug. Warmer than he remembered - all that singing must have really had her boilers and core working hard. 

“Rabbit is someone there?” Called a deep voice and two pairs of footsteps was all the warning he had before The Spine and Zero came into view. Zero had a water bottle in his hand, condensation dripping off of it, and The Spine had his tie undone and vest opened, shirt unbuttoned a little to help expose where Peter knew his water tank was. An attempt to cool down his boiler and other systems. 

“Peter.” The Spine said, voice vaguely surprised and eyebrows raised. 

“Pete!” Zero cried out and ran forward, giving Peter such an excited hug it lifted him off the ground and twirled him around once before setting him back on the ground. “How’re you doing buddy? It’s been so long, like what, a month? Why haven’t you texted your old buddy Zero? I’ve missed you!” All the words were said quickly and with enthusiasm. Peter felt himself blush. 

“I, uh, I never got your guys’ number before you left. I don’t actually know if you guys even have phones.” He admitted. 

“Actually, we kind of  _ are _ phone.” Rabbit leaned forward and said. 

“It’s part of our communication system.” The Spine explained, placing a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “I’m happy to see that you’re well. The fact that I couldn’t get to know you better before we left - I’m sorry about that.” The Spine said, reaching up and taking off his hand, holding it guiltily in his hand. 

“Me too!” Peter exclaimed, a smile slipping onto his face. 

“What brings you to our neck of the woods? This isn’t exactly a conference for kiddos.” Rabbit asked. 

“Well, I was here with Tony, but I kind of lost track of him.” He admitted, feeling heat rise to his cheeks. 

“Are you trying to find him, cuz I haven’t seen him here.” Zero offered. 

“I can find him for you.” The Spine offered, raising a hand to his temple. 

“Oh - you don’t have to-”

“It’s easy, really.” The Spine assured. “We’ve been chatting on and off with Friday all day. And BEBOP - a friend of our who tagged along unintentionally in our equipment - hacked the computer cameras. I’m sure that them working together - yeah, we got him.” The Spine gave a satisfied nod. 

“Where was he?” Peter asked, concerned for his mentor figure. The Spine paused for a moment, obviously listened to the others over the messaging system. 

“Sounds like a rival company manager managed to catch him and convinced him to have coffee together where he had to try and deflect accusations and pitfall questions.” A small laugh bubbled up to Peter’s lips as relief let his shoulders droop in relief. At least it wasn’t some kind of Iron Man situation. Honestly he probably would have felt somewhat insulted if it was a superhero thing and Tony had purposefully left Peter out. “Friday said they’d let Tony know where you are. Why don’t you stay and-”

“Hang out with us for a bit Peter!” Rabbit practically shouted. Zero gave a little shush, gesturing to the other side of the door where Six and his dad were still doing their whole trade show thing to the crowd. “Oh, right.” Rabbit said just barely quieter. “We’ve missed you - we leave the mansion even less now because Five said-” Rabbit straightened and adopted a gruff and deep voice that was honestly nothing like Mr. Walters. “‘You three get in trouble everytime I take my eyes off of you. I could use two or three months without a heart attack you know’.” 

“It’s crazy to see you guys though!” Peter said, happiness radiating off of him. “And I didn’t know you guys could sing - you sounded fantastic!”

“That’s actually our ‘primary function’.” The Spine made little quotation marks with his hands. Peter supposed that for sentient automatons what they were meant for didn’t have a true meaning. Just because someone had a child with the intention of it being a doctor, and with all the studying to make them a doctor, that didn’t mean it was the only thing that kid could do. 

“Do you like singing?” He asked curiously as they walked off to a couple of couches that were off to the side, surrounding a small coffee table. 

“Singing is our life!” Rabbit cried, face split in a grin. “We’ve had to do a lot of things in our lives. Tried out different things. But singing is the one thing we always come back to.” She explained, eyes somewhat distant as notes of fondness peppered her words. 

“What have you been up to?” Zero asked, reaching over and taking a drink from a water bottle. 

“Mostly just school and internships and stuff.” Peter said with a shrug. “And you know, Spiderman stuff.” 

“Spiderman stuff?” Zero asked, frowning. “Do you like, wrangle up spiders or something?” It was weird - he had spent a week or so around Zero and Rabbit, but in the chaos of trying to fix The Spine he had somehow neglected to truly divulge any information about himself. He sat there and talked to them about the whole superhero gig. Explained his strength and abilities - picked up Zero who seemed excited to meet someone besides his siblings who was able to carry his weight. They took it really well, and the more he talked the more interested Peter was in their own lives. How crazy of things had they seen to be able to just so casually accept the craziness of Peter and his super powers? Conversation was easy, comforting even. The more they talked, the more Peter knew that he liked these people, and their company. 

Eventually Tony came to whisk Peter away for the Stark Industries presentation, seeming relieved that Peter was in one piece and okay. He didn’t seem surprised to see the Walters, so Peter assumed that Friday had already told him they were here. This time, when they parted, they exchanged phone numbers. 

“Ping us any time, Pete.” Zero said, his arms enveloping Peter in a goodbye hug. 

“When’s the next time I’ll see you guys?”

“Oh, I’m sure it won’t be long.” The Spine assured, a small smirk on his face. “We tend to find ourselves in troublesome situations, and it sounds like so do you. They’re bound to line up at some point.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what ya thought with a comment.


End file.
